Kristian Garic: I’m an alcoholic

Trudging and Trudging –

Dec. 17, 2020 – Some of you reading this might have an addict/alcoholic in your family or life who is in recovery, or an addict/alcoholic who hasn’t yet decided to admit it or get help.

Getting help was perhaps the hardest decision I ever had to make. Here I was, pretty successful, with a good job. My bills were paid, my kids are healthy and I’m a father actively involved in their lives. Nothing the matter, right? Not so fast. Just to give you the insight into the depth of my drinking; I didn’t just drink three or four beers and call it quits. I drank a 12 pack of beer and a fifth of whiskey nearly every night for the past ten years.

I didn’t want to admit I was an alcoholic. But, what my brain and heart refused to realize, my body actualized. My body told me that I needed to knock it off and do so quickly. My blood pressure was at a life-threatening level. My liver enzymes were at a very dangerous level too. This once fit Marine sergeant had even become morbidly obese. The end result – I drank myself into a type two diabetic. That’s my reward for neglect, remorse … for hiding out. That’s what I got from years of drinking my fears away … for not facing the man in the mirror.